Ref Watch: Swindon & Cheltenham

[Billy bodger]

John L, you’re right, they are not always bad just “in the main”, as I said.

[John L]

John L, you’re right, they are not always bad just “in the main”, as I said.

Absolutely! It's funny to look back and see when they had a "different" game. He was good today but so were we, which always helps!

[Keith]

We’ve been allocated ref Alan Young for the Grimsby match on Saturday and Michael Barlow for Lincoln on Tuesday.

AY was in charge when we lost 3-2 at Grimsby in November 2023 and drew 1-1 at Wycombe in October 2022. So far this season he’s issued 52 yellows and 1 red in 10 matches (5.20 and 0.10) including two matches where he’s given 10 yellows.

We’ve never had MB in charge before as it’s his first season up from the NL. So far this season in 3 L2, 2 NL and 2 Trophy matches he’s issued 18 yellows and 1 red in those 7 matches (2.57 and 0.14).

[John L]

We’ve been allocated ref Alan Young for the Grimsby match on Saturday and Michael Barlow for Lincoln on Tuesday.

AY was in charge when we lost 3-2 at Grimsby in November 2023 and drew 1-1 at Wycombe in October 2022. So far this season he’s issued 52 yellows and 1 red in 10 matches (5.20 and 0.10) including two matches where he’s given 10 yellows.

Bit suspicious having a Mr Young refereeing games against Grimsby...

https://youngsseafood.co.uk/story/

[Westgate Wanderer]

We’ve been allocated ref Alan Young for the Grimsby match on Saturday and Michael Barlow for Lincoln on Tuesday.

AY was in charge when we lost 3-2 at Grimsby in November 2023 and drew 1-1 at Wycombe in October 2022. So far this season he’s issued 52 yellows and 1 red in 10 matches (5.20 and 0.10) including two matches where he’s given 10 yellows.

Bit suspicious having a Mr Young refereeing games against Grimsby...

https://youngsseafood.co.uk/story/

Do you think something fishy is going on?

[John L]

We’ve been allocated ref Alan Young for the Grimsby match on Saturday and Michael Barlow for Lincoln on Tuesday.

AY was in charge when we lost 3-2 at Grimsby in November 2023 and drew 1-1 at Wycombe in October 2022. So far this season he’s issued 52 yellows and 1 red in 10 matches (5.20 and 0.10) including two matches where he’s given 10 yellows.

Bit suspicious having a Mr Young refereeing games against Grimsby...

https://youngsseafood.co.uk/story/

Do you think something fishy is going on?

I did wonder, but he's apparently from Milton Keynes these days although has had local connections in the past...
https://www.thewestmorlandgazette.co.uk/sport/3810832.new-officer-to-recruit-referees/

[Keith]

We’ve been allocated ref Sunny Singh Gill for the Cheltenham match.

He was in charge when we lost 2-0 at Sheffield Wednesday in the FA Cup in November 2022.

So far this season he’s issued 53 yellows and 1 red in 15 matches (3.53 and 0.07).

[Keith]

We’ve been allocated refs:
Steven Copeland for the Bromley match

Scott Oldham for the Carlisle match

Dale Baines for the Salford match on Sunday 29th
and
John Mulligan for the Tranmere match on New Years Day.

We’ve never had SC in charge before and this will be only his third L2 match. This season he’s issued 61 yellows and 6 reds in 14 matches (4.36 and 0.43).

We last had SO in charge when we lost 0-1 to Crewe in April. This season he’s issued 52 yellows and 2 reds in 14 matches (3.71 and 0.14).

We’ve never had DB in charge before. This season he’s issued 58 yellows and no reds in 17 matches (3.41).

JM was in charge when we beat Notts Forest u21’s 4-2 in the Trophy in October and this will be only his third L2 match. This season he’s issued 48 yellows and no reds in 10 matches (4.80).

What a difference in the number of reds issued by these four refs.

[Phil Anderer]

We’ve been allocated refs:
Steven Copeland for the Bromley match

Scott Oldham for the Carlisle match

Dale Baines for the Salford match on Sunday 29th
and
John Mulligan for the Tranmere match on New Years Day.

We’ve never had SC in charge before and this will be only his third L2 match. This season he’s issued 61 yellows and 6 reds in 14 matches (4.36 and 0.43).

We last had SO in charge when we lost 0-1 to Crewe in April. This season he’s issued 52 yellows and 2 reds in 14 matches (3.71 and 0.14).

We’ve never had DB in charge before. This season he’s issued 58 yellows and no reds in 17 matches (3.41).

JM was in charge when we beat Notts Forest u21’s 4-2 in the Trophy in October and this will be only his third L2 match. This season he’s issued 48 yellows and no reds in 10 matches (4.80).

What a difference in the number of reds issued by these four refs.

Hope Copeland can see through Bromley if what's been said about them elsewhere's true, otherwise we could be down to 9 men by the final whistle

[Keith]

We’ve been allocated ref Thomas Parsons for the Newport match tomorrow.
We had him in charge twice last season - in August when we lost in the League Cup on penalties at Rotherham after a 1-1 draw and in March when we lost against Wrexham 1-3 (he sent Max Melbourne off in the 49 minute).

So far this season he’s issued 97 yellows and 4 reds in 19 matches (5.11 and 0.21).

[Keith]

Wrexham brought their own referee with them. Remember the name Thomas Parsons, and hope we never see him again. If we do notice he's officiating us, stick a wedge of cash on the opposition.

Generally, in the cold light of day, we can recognise if a ref has been incompetent, or just having a bad day, because errors will be in both directions. Even if a decision is game changing, we can see that other 'odd' decisions, that weren't so important, went in the other direction. But Parsons was simply biased, giving us absolutely nothing, and Wrexham everything.

I can't remember a worse referee in the Football League, and that is going some.

Oh bollocks Thomas Parsons' refereeing of the Wrexham game was utterly dreadful. Genuinely, one of the worst performances I've ever seen. Looks like our chances of getting a result at Newport have taken a turn for the worst, if they start with 12 players as Wrexham did

[fulwoodshrimp]

It’s a blow to have Thomas Parsons refereeing todays game. His performance when we played Wrexham last year was a truly awful example of a biased official determining the result. Imo opinion he is not good enough to be in the league and should be demoted to a local parks league somewhere.

[Keith]

We’ve been allocated Championship ref Andrew Kitchen for the Chelsea match on Saturday.

We had him in charge when we were beaten 0-3 by Sheffield Wednesday in September 2022 and when we beat Wycombe 1-0 in April 2023. This season he’s issued 64 yellows and 1 red in 16 matches (4.00 and 0.06).

[Keith]

Has anyone had a clear view of the ball before it was crossed & hand-balled? It looked out of play to me, as did a move a few minutes earlier that led to a corner instead of a goal kick. Other than that...

[Keith]

We’ve been allocated ref Paul Howard for the Crewe match on Saturday.

We had him in charge twice last season - when we lost against Gillingham 2-3 last March and when we beat Tranmere 1-0 in October 2023. This season he’s issued 52 yellows and 1 red in 15 matches (3.47 and 0.07).

[Keith]

We’ve been allocated refs Sam Purkiss for the Colchester match on Saturday and Ben Toner for Bradford next Tuesday.

Purkiss was in charge twice last season, when we beat Colchester 1-3 in October (sending James Connolly off after 36 minutes) and when we lost 3-1 at Salford in March. This season, he’s issued 67 yellows and 1 red in 14 matches (4.78 and 0.07).

We haven’t seen Toner for two seasons, as he was last in charge in November 2022 when we lost 2-0 at MK Dons in the EFL Cup. This season, he’s issued 119 yellows and 4 reds in 24 matches (4.96 and 0.17).

[Keith]

We’ve been allocated refs Sam Purkiss for the Colchester match on Saturday...

Purkiss was in charge twice last season, when we beat Colchester 1-3 in October (sending James Connolly off after 36 minutes)

Sincerely hope we don't get this crap ref again. Can't wait to send a Morecambe player off. Any opposition team who see his name know they need to spend the week working on acting and diving rather than set pieces.

[Redalert1970]

Wasn't their a story about Ben Toner in the past

Think it might have been a Blackpool match ..didn't they have to change referees as his name sounded like something else (while oyston was in charge of the club)

[Keith]

Think it might have been a Blackpool match ..didn't they have to change referees as his name sounded like something else (while oyston was in charge of the club)

Yes, at the last minute he was sent to us, and our ref sent to Blackpool.

Fleetwood, Blackpool & Morecambe... The North West coast really attracts dodgy owners...

[Keith]

We’ve been allocated refs Edward Duckworth for the Fleetwood match on Saturday and Carl Brook for Newport next Tuesday.

We had ED in charge when we lost 1-2 to Carlisle in the Trophy in November and last season when we beat Wimbledon 4-1. He’s issued 81 yellows and 3 reds in 18 matches so far this season (4.50 and 0.17).

CB was in charge last season when we lost 3-0 at Walsall. He’s issued 101 yellows and 2 reds in 22 matches so far this season (4.59 and 0.09).

[Keith]

We’ve been allocated ref Paul Marsden for the Notts County match on Saturday.

We haven’t had him in charge since 2019 when we beat Macclesfield 0-1 in August, beat Leyton Orient 1-0 in November and beat Newport 2-1 in December.

So far this season he’s issued 65 yellows and 2 reds in 14 matches mainly in the NL (4.64 and 0.14).

[Keith]

We’ve been allocated ref Ben Speedie for the Walsall match on Saturday.
He was in charge when we beat Barrow 0-1 in October and a year earlier when we lost at Barrow 1-0.
So far this season he’s issued 98 yellows and 1 red in 29 matches (3.38 and 0.03).

[Redalert1970]

He was shocking today and the bald headed lino was no better

[fulwoodshrimp]

Ben Speedie was very poor today and imo joins Thomas Parsons as a referee unsuitable for league football. It's time to drum them out of the game.

[Keith]

Really? I didn't think he was too bad! What errors do you think he made? The sending off was clear cut. He allowed a physical battle in both directions. Other than twice getting in the way of the ball, which is unusual, and broke up our attack on both occasions, I thought he got most of the big decisions right. I've seen other refs who would have given them a penalty too!